Bonds that Bind
by poeticgrace
Summary: Six friends, six points of view. ONE SHOT.


Josephine Potter was introduced to Dawson Leery when she was just a little girl, far too young to understand the implications their young friendship would have on the rest of her life. Like a stone cast into the nearby creek, it would send ripples throughout her world for years to come. His place in her life was steady and sure, ever-present and the one true thing she could count on when all else failed to make sense. There would be ups and downs, times their closeness would come in ebbs and flows, the whole catastrophe of growing up really.

Jen Lindley first saw Pacey Whitter while standing on a pier, him dressed in this disaster of a sea creature costume and her "all kinds of cute" in a sundress from her favorite boutique in the Village. They had connected instantly in an outsider kind of way, two people destined to play supporting roles in the whole star-crossed lovers production that was Dawson and Joey. They were rebels with a cause, determined to make a splash when their families were too busy to take notice. Pacey understood Jen in a way no one else could, and she understood him.

Jack McPhee met Andie McPhee while peering over the edge of a nursery window when he was far too young to understand what was happening. Tim was a handful of years older than him but equally excited when they first saw the tiny, soft, pink bundle that was their baby sister. He had no idea the responsibility that would come with being an older brother, the determination he would feel to keep her safe and the loyalty that would often come at his expense. He just knew that he loved this little girl, a feeling that hasn't gone away since.

Dawson Leery discovered the real Jen Lindley a year after he met that initial incarnation, when she was this empty shell of a girl who had just lost her grandfather and possibly her entire world. He had already fallen in love with her, but now he understood that he had never really known her. This girl was vulnerable, not at all the strong vixen she had portrayed herself to be. All he wanted to do was take care of her, but that wasn't his place anymore. He had to be content with being the best friend she'd ever have instead.

Andie McPhee admired Joey Potter for the first time when the rest of the world was falling apart around her. Neither of them were strangers to tragedy and loss; they were soul sisters in the game of high school gossip fodder. When one mean girl went too far in the midst of a student election no one would remember in five years anyhow, Joey wasn't afraid to stand up fight. She wasn't just fighting for herself or her mother's memory. She was fighting for a girl she hadn't really known long enough to even call that good of a friend.

Pacey Whitter befriended Jack McPhee many different times in many different ways, but it was that lost year when they cemented their bond. Pacey hit it big as a stockbroker and Jack had met a closeted frat boy and the whole thing was a strange version of Bosom Buddies gone awry. They lived with Emma and enjoyed being single bachelors and never worried about what came after being young carefree. Afterward, when they finally did grow up and Jack was raising Amy with Doug and Pacey had become her favorite uncle, they became more than friends - they became a family.

* * *

><p>Dawson Leery loved Andie McPhee because she's the only person who understood what it felt like when his stomach was ripped out through the tips of his toes. Andie had to go crazy before she could appreciate what she had. She had lost her mind and in the process, she lost her heart, all because she thought some random guy in a hospital actually understood her. Dawson lost his heart when a full moon shone a little too bright and the forces of gravity proved to be a little too strong. Heartbreak is the saddest connection two people could share.<p>

Jen Lindley loved Joey Potter because she was fiercely loyal. It's that challenge that forces her to admire the fierce brunette when they're fifteen, knowing full well that she will never love a man as blindly or as unconditionally as Joey loves Dawson. The girl would go to hell and back with her best friend without ever questioning her place at his side. It makes her a little jealous sometimes, the pedestal Joey seems to be on. But then again, Jen is afraid of heights, and knows that it's a long way down when you fall from something that high.

Pacey Whitter loved Jen Lindley because she would always be his girl that got away. He had long thought that there would be many over the years, but their dalliance junior year of high school was the one he looks back most wistfully. It wasn't that they didn't try. The fates just had something different in the stars. And then he watched her dance at Gale's wedding all those years later, the mother of this perfect little girl, and he can't help but wonder "what if." Saying goodbye to Jen reminds him once again that some questions never get answered.

Joey Potter loved Jack McPhee because he became her best friend when she didn't have hers anymore. She could've blamed him for the whole thing, that disaster of a kiss and the aftermath it had that awful year. She could have said he set that pattern in motion, the one that destroyed her friendship with Dawson after she once again betrayed him with another man. Instead, she chooses to focus on the scared kid who realized he was different and didn't want to break her heart but ultimately did. She chooses to remember only the good that was left behind.

Andie McPhee loved Pacey Whitter because of that perfect first date where twinkling lights provided the perfect setting for a girl to fall in love. She loved him because that's the memory she clings to when she starts to lose herself and Tim's voice slowly becomes louder than anything else. She loved him because it's what makes her want to be strong again when she goes away to the hospital and her brother started to worry that she was turning into her mother. Most of all, she loved him because he was there when no one else could have been.

Jack McPhee loved Dawson Leery because he is the first one who forced him to publicly deal with who he was when he wasn't even entirely sure what that meant. It started with a video project and blossomed into this huge expose on discrimination in high school athletics and he's thrown into an unwanted limelight. Yet, Dawson doesn't let him back down even a little bit and constantly reminds him why he is there and gets Jen on board with the whole mission. Years later, he shows the video to Amy so she can understand where they both came from.

* * *

><p>Andie McPhee hated Jen Lindley because she made being bad look so effortless. When Pacey turned to Joey and ran away to sail around the world that summer, she wanted nothing more than to become someone else. It was easier to lose herself with some French boy from the beach than to own up to her broken heart. Jen was always at her side, encouraging her to live life on her own terms. Andie couldn't even take drugs the right way. Jen's ability to at least pretend she didn't care what other people think was something worth admiring to her.<p>

Jack McPhee hated Joey Potter because she had the ability to rip their whole group apart. He remembers the first time it happened because he caused it. He's more than happy to sit on the sidelines the second time as she tore apart two best friends. He knows she's not entirely to blame, but Joey has this was of being oblivious. If she had opened her eyes, she could have foreseen what was happening. Everyone else did. Sometimes he thought she was selfish, but he'd never admit it. He could only wait for the next time she tore them apart.

Dawson Leery hated Pacey Whitter for reasons that were far too obvious. It wasn't just a girl that destroyed their friendship. It was a year full of lies that culminated in the biggest betrayal imaginable to a sixteen-year-old boy. He never once doubted if she was worth it, but he often wondered if Pacey was. Their friendship had endured adolescence up to a point, but she was too big of a hurdle for either of them to overcome. Looking back, he knows Pacey didn't fall on purpose. Like Dawson, he was just the victim of her brown eyes.

Pacey Whitter hated Dawson Leery for being his moral compass. When ever there was a question if he should do something or not, he only had to ask, "What would Dawson do?" He would disappoint his best friend more times than he could count. He would break his heart and destroy his dreams and tear apart his life. And yet, Dawson could always find a way to forgive him because it was easier to remember the good than to hold onto the pain. Pacey remembers Mitch's funeral and learning to drive when times are tough. That's something worth holding onto.

Joey Potter hated Andie McPhee because she got to be the first one to go. She had the opportunity first, to leave Capeside at the age of fifteen and chase after her dream in Paris. It would be another five years before she would eventually go, but she wasn't the same wide-eyed cynic then. She had been through stuff that jaded those dreams. Still,, she knows there is no regretting staying in Massachusetts that summer. That summer gave her Dawson. That summer pretty much gave her the rest of her wonderful, beautiful, complicated life.

Jen Lindley hated Jack McPhee because she knew that no one would ever mean more to her. Sometimes she had to curse her own bad lucky that she had to go and find someone who liked boys to be her best friend because she could not imagine loving anyone more. It's only after she has Amy and stares at that perfect little face that she knows what the term soulmate really meant. They had said it a million times but knowing that there was someone out there who loved her daughter as much as she did, cemented it for her.

* * *

><p>Pacey Whitter needed Andie McPhee to be the first person to ever tell him that he was worth it. He used to be perfectly content to be the slacker, the class clown of a sidekick, just lovable Whitter screwup. She made him believe he could be that guy and he spent the next few years trying to prove he was half the guy she thought he was. High school graduation, a blossoming career, even his own restaurant - it paled in comparison to the man she envisioned when they were sixteen. Sometimes, Pacey wonders if he will ever become that guy.<p>

Joey Pottered needed Jen Lindley to make her finally go for what she wanted. Without the so-called slut from New York, she might have never made a move for the boy from across. They might've never shared that kiss in his bedroom and her life as she knew it would be completely different. There were regrets and things that were too hard for words, but she wouldn't change a single thing so that she could end up here. Jen had forced her to become the woman she was meant to be, giving her one of life's most incredible gifts.

Dawson Leery needed Joey Potter. It was that simple. He needed her to breathe, to live, to love. He needed her to survive the unsurvivable, to make sense of the nonsensical. She was his inspiration for everything, his soulmate when he had no idea what that meant, the reason he could do the things he did. She believed in him unyieldingly, unconditionally, uninhibitedly. Her faith in him knew no boundaries even when she placed borders on her own heart. It always came back to Dawson and Joey. It'd been written in the stars long before they'd ever had any say.

Andie McPhee needed Jack McPhee to give her stability when her parents gave her anything but. She couldn't imagine surviving childhood, especially the part after Tim, without the help of her brother. There was no other bond like theirs. It's what happens when two people go through everything together. Every bad thing and every good thing and just about everything she had gone through was better because Jack was there. He was her best friend when she had no one else and was truly her saving grace. Jack was her everything.

Jack McPhee needed Pacey Whitter to be there for his sister when he just wasn't strong enough to be her backbone. He would never admit it, but it's exhausting being the one to constantly take care of everyone else. He felt older than he should've at seventeen, watching his sister chase ghosts that were never going to be there again. He was grateful for Pacey for being the man that Andie needed, for giving her a safe place to hide and protecting her heart. It gave him some much-needed freedom, if only for a moment, to live his life.

Jen Lindley needed Dawson Leery to give her new life. Before Dawson, she was nothing more than a girl with a reputation who grew up too fast and used her body to get her parents' attention. She was a pawn in their sick game, a token that could be batted about rather than cherished or loved. He was the first one to see her as more than an object. She became something to covet. She knew that he was beautiful in his eyes, and that beauty was in the most innocent way possible. Dawson believed in her when there wasn't much to believe.

* * *

><p>Dawson Leery knew it took Jack McPhee to make him see that Joey was far from perfect. He had cast her into sainthood by the time the McPhees made their way to Capeside, and it wasn't until another wide-eyed drifter with dark eyes and sienna skin captured her attention that he saw an ending without her in it. If it wasn't for Jack, he might still see the halo and never see the horns. To idolize a woman like that was dangerous for a dreamer like Dawson. Without Jack, Dawson might've never learned the hard lesson that was reality.<p>

Andie McPhee knew it took Dawson Leery to keep the gang together. His home was their one true north, the place where they could go when nothing made sense. He was their common thread, the way they all fit together. She valued his quiet friendship, one built on their need to dream big and do the right thing and change the world. They would never be the stuff of fantasies, but they were the ones that could be counted on. It was nice to be able to look across a room when they were all hanging out and know that he got it. They really were the best ones.

Pacey Whitter knew it took Joey Potter to nearly destroy his entire world. He was the victim of her wavering brown eyes, terribly sarcastic wit, overwhelming intelligence and soul-gazing charm. He had witnessed the rise and fall of Dawson and Joey, and had still willingly fallen head over heels in love with her. His life had never been the same since, nor had his friendship with Dawson. She had been their downfall, their kryptonite. She often made apologies but repeated the same mistakes. He tried to pretend he was her ending. It still hurts to see her with him.

Jen Lindley knew it took Andie McPhee to be the first girlfriend she had in Capeside that didn't come with pretenses, history or competition. Andie accepted her for who she was and eventually adopted her as an honorary sister. She trusted her with her most treasured thing in the world, her brother, when she left for Italty. Jen took that responsibility seriously, still does. Without Andie, she might have never found her best friend. It took her loving Pacey to let Jen love Jack. Their little group might have been incestuous, but Jen would always be glad for their screwed-up connections.

Jack McPhee knew it took Jen Lindley for him to become a father. The only good thing that would ever come out of losing his best friend was the humbling honor of raising her daughter. Every time he looked at his daughter, _their_ daughter, he fell in love all over again. She was all her mother's eyes and that famous smirk and all these tiny things that made him miss Jen. He couldn't help but want to give her everything Jen wouldn't be able to give her. Jack just tried to focus on loving her enough for both of them.

Joey Potter knew it took Pacey Whitter to make her realize what her true "happily ever after" moment was going to be. When they lost Jen, she had believed what she had said. She had truly believed that her life culminated in him. It's only later, when she loses her father and runs straight into Dawson's arms, that she knows that it was always going to be him. It's the last time she walked away from Pacey. Her heart has finally found its home. She and Dawson finally get their happily ever after. It was the greatest story ever told.


End file.
